The voice of a Turkish woman brought new life into Japanese songs thousands of miles from her homeland. Emine Sari, a Hatay-born singer who left her native country to follow her passion for singing, competed in the finals in a Japanese song contest to select the Best Singer of 2008. Having bested her rivals in the first and second rounds of the competition, which resembles "American Idol," Sari was the only foreigner who performed in the finals in the Japanese city of Osaka. She sang in the traditional Japanese enka style. Enka is a type of Japanese ballad sung in a traditional and melodramatic style, often by women in kimono, Sari explains. "Enka-style songs are full of emotions and the way you sing them enables you to convey your sincerity. Impressed with the melody of classical Japanese music, Sarı was interested in singing enka-style songs and decided to go to Japan. "I was working on enka songs I found on the Internet, and Japan became the country of my dreams. I tried hard to find a way to go to Japan and found myself here after some time," Sari explains in an email interview with Today's Zaman."Enka songs are also very hard to sing since there are difficult transitions. It requires a long time and discipline to learn how to sing," Sari explains, adding that she worked on singing in this style for six years. Now, she practices 10 hours every day, and is back in Japan to start a new project, along with Matsumoto Band.As expected, she is willing to take some risks and is ready to perform new songs in Japanese, Turkish and English, and along Matsumoto Band, in 2009, Sari is ready to hit the road in a new concert tour in Japan.